The present invention relates to a bullet-proof composite material, mouldable into flat and curved plates or into hollow bodies of complex shape.
As known, it is a topical problem to protect the life of those who get involved in fire encounters--in war and in peace--from bullets shot at medium and short distance. For this purpose, the police-forces and the armies of various countries have since long intensified the searches for equipping men and means with more and more efficient protections against bullets shot with firearms.
Up-to-date, however, the results obtained can be considered successful only for certain types of firearms and limitedly to certain projectile bores, which is insufficient also for protecting members of the police-forces, considering the spreading around of the use, by the organized underworld or by the terrorists, of projectiles with increasingly larger bores and of more and more refined and powerful weapons.
Furthermore, the solution to the aforespecified problem has often been found in the use of heavy and bulky protective means (such as the typical metallic protections which have long been used in modern armies and which date back to old age, or at least have been inspired by it), which kill the operating ability, the movements and the quickness of those who wear them or of the means onto which they are applied.
For a really modern and efficient solution to the above problem, it was proposed, particularly at the level of bullet-proof jackets and helmets and protective plates for vehicles, to take advantage of the characteristics of some modern cloths made of special synthetic fibers, such as fibers of aromatic polyamide, also referred to as "ballistic nylon" to retain bodies such as bullets launched at high speed thereagainst.
Up-to-date, however, the attempts made in this direction have given unsatisfactory or incomplete results and particularly have required the use of variously processed or treated classic protection materials, typically metallic materials, in association with said cloths, so that as to the known art the availability of efficient means for bullet-proof protection, which would be necessary and are pressingly required by circumstances, is still a long way off.